New Information

There is no doubt that experiences with ayahuasca and other
psychointegrator (a term coined by Michael Winkelman) plants and
substances bring forth not only ecstatic but sometimes terrorific
emotions. Information may also come from long forgotten or repressed
memories. New information may come from such channels as
de-familiarization, when everything is seen as new, most eloquently
expressed by Huxley (1954) in his experiments with mescaline: “I
was seeing what Adam had seen on the morning of his creation –the
miracle, moment by moment, of naked existence”. This is
something I have often experienced, “discovering” new
qualities in what was familiar, objects, plants, or human beings.
When anthropologists go to the field, their first notes are extremely
valuable, they see what is new in the societies and in the
environment more clearly. As time goes by, what was strange becomes
familiar, and therefore nearly invisible. To have the chance of
seeing all once more like “in the beginning” (in mythical
times) is a precious gift.

When
asked about the origin of their body painting, their art, or other
products of their culture, indigenous Amazonian groups often refer to
sacred plants. “We see this in the visions.” “These
are songs we learn from the plant spirits”. “Ayahuasca
taught us the right way of living”. Michael E. Brown reports
that among the Aguaruna of the Alto Río Mayo, in Peru, “men
continue to recognize the important role that the visions obtained in
their youth had in promoting their moral education and physical
well-being, and in helping them make the transition to the
responsibilities of adult life (Brown 1985:59). According to Lagrou
(2000:31) “The cosmic snake Yube has mastered all possible
appearances of form, color and design that can be perceived by human
eyes. All the phenomena of this world are said to be inscribed in the
designs of its skin and can be visualized through the (metaphoric)
ingestion of his blood (nawa himi) or his urine (dunuc
isun), which are the names of ayahuasca in ritual songs.”
Among members of the Brazilian religious organizations, the songs
sang during the rituals called hymns, by those organizations
that call the sacrament Santo Daime, or chamadas by
members of the UDV (União do
Vegetal) and dissident groups, are said to have been “receive”
from the astral plane, not composed by the founders or their
disciples.